No job, no cash and no future. It sounds like a Sex Pistols lyric from the seventies, but sadly it was an all too recent headline from one of London’s daily papers. Tens of thousands of young people feel destined never to amount to anything, according to research by charity the Prince’s Trust.

We talk about inspirational and iconic packaging all the time in this business, but how often can we point to a brand and say, hand on heart, that it has introduced creativity to the masses?

The answer, surely, depends on the planner.

There are designers and creative directors out there who view them with suspicion; who fear being constrained by reams of research and who resent what they see as their meddling. By the same token there are those that appear too frightened to think about a brief unless it has been through the planning department. Neither extreme is healthy.

This is the time of year when loads of people join the gym with the sworn intention of getting into shape. New year, new start and all that. It set me thinking about how design agencies could shape up for the challenges 2010 will bring.

Turner Duckworth’s work for Coca Cola deserves every accolade it receives. Just recently it picked up a Benchmark Best of Show Award to go with its Yellow Pencils, Cannes Grand Prix for Design and many others.

A few years ago downmarket British frozen food retailer Iceland went all organic. It converted all its own brand vegetables to organic and promised to do the same for meat. Commentators sniggered. Mums go to Iceland to buy lorry loads of convenience food for next to nothing; they do not pop in to stock up on organic petit pois. Worthy though it was the organic initiative lasted just six months because it was fundamentally wrong for Iceland’s customer base.